Top 20 fitness trends for 2016

The American College of Sports Medicine recently released its top 20 health and fitness trends for 2016.

Not too surprisingly, wearable technology has gone straight in at the number one spot, reflecting the huge impact this has already had on the industry. Although still relatively in their infancy, tracking devices enable people to get much more accurate data on their activity, sleep and even stress levels – feedback which can help you make more informed decisions about your health and also adhere to positive behaviour changes. For fitness professionals this provides access to information that was previously only obtainable through self-reporting, which made it highly unreliable. Now personal trainers are able to monitor their clients’ lifestyles much more closely which means they can offer a better service and support people more effectively. This trend is backed up by the introduction of Smart phone exercise apps at number 17 and Outcome measurements at number 20 which are often linked to wearable technology.

Fitness professionals are key

Other highlights from the list are Educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals and Personal training which have been in the top 10 trends for some years showing their value to the industry. As we revealed in our Raising the Bar report launched at the uk active Summit last week, there is still a huge need to raise standards of personal trainer education in the UK overall, something Future Fit are spearheading in an attempt to bring the rest of the industry up to the high level we have always strived to maintain.

Behaviour change – the essential foundation

It’s perhaps a surprise that Wellness coaching isn’t further up the list this year, given the importance being placed on it by the industry. Perhaps this is because the survey isn’t just focussed on professionals and is looking at trends more globally. However it’s clear that more trainers are taking on the principles of behaviour change coaching as they realise how important they are to achieving results with clients. That’s why we recently developed our Behaviour Change Coaching course.

Types of exercise

When you think of fitness trends, the most obvious things that spring to mind are types of training that are popular at the time, and there are a couple on the list worth mentioning.

Strength training continues to be a top 5 trend and quite rightly as it’s now well recognised that resistance exercise has benefits across the board, from sports performance to fat loss to health improvement. Our Advanced Resistance Training e-learning course covers assessment, performance and programming for a variety of goals.

Functional fitness has been in the top 10 for 6 years. There are many debates over exactly what functional training is – take a look at this article for our thoughts.